Saturday, September 15, 2012

Church and Inn (or, the Pub-lic Nature of Religion)

The
connection between the liturgy and cheerful earthiness (“Church and inn”) has
always been regarded as typically Catholic, and so it is still.

Spirit of the Liturgy, 200

Reflection – Well, the past couple days on the blog have
been a bit serious, as I’ve been grappling with what all of us paying attention
to the world right now have been grappling with—the waves of violent protest
sweeping the Middle East and elsewhere, and the very serious threat these pose
to peace and security, and what our individual and collective response is to be
to this new crisis.

All very serious… so
perhaps this more light-hearted quote from Ratzinger is well-timed. Personally,
I have always been in favour of the most cordial relationships between Church
and inn, Church and pub. The idea that there is something disreputable or shady
or scandalous about going out and having a grand good time with friends and
family in a respectable drinking establishment is completely foreign to me
(those reading this who know me: “Uh, yeah, we know this, Father…”).

Religion is damaged,
in my view, by the Puritanical attitude that sees earthly pleasures as somehow
outside it and generally opposed to it. At the same time, ‘cheerful earthiness’
(lovely turn of phrase!) is damaged, perhaps even more so, by its divorce in
our days, at least in most quarters, from God and religion.

With religion, as long
as genuine prayer and a real connection with God is happening, joy has a way of
breaking through, even if the person has some degree of Puritanism to contend
with. The Church without the inn may be impoverished, but is still the Church.

The inn without the
Church doesn’t fare as well, in my opinion. Genuine human celebration, earthy
joy, raising a pint or two with the lads or the lasses—all of this is strengthened,
secured, undergirded, upheld, and frankly made much more fun by its being
grounded in a lively religious faith.

This may seem
paradoxical, but that’s only because we are so far removed in our day from a
real Christian culture. When we celebrate in any fashion, in any regard, what
we are doing really is proclaiming that life is good. To go out with friends
and have an enjoyable evening, to laugh and sing and kick up one’s heels, is to
say in a most natural and spontaneous way that the world is a good place, in
spite of all our troubles, and so we can rejoice even in the midst of them.

Well, if we don’t
really believe that, our celebration tends to become a bit frantic, doesn’t it?
If cynicism or nihilism or deep unhappiness is the bigger picture in our life,
if the little brightly lit inn is surrounded by a vast ocean of inky darkness
and despair, then suddenly it’s not such a good time, right?

One or two pints
becomes eight or nine… and things get a bit blurry after that. Laughter and
song becomes raucous noise and excess… and perhaps we don’t (ahem) feel quite
so good the next day. The evening starts out happy and fine… but somehow fights
always break out in the small hours.

Our culture in its secularized state is not
(hic!) having such a good time any more, despite its increasingly loud and
somewhat incoherent protests to the contrary. The road from the inn to the
Church and the Church to the inn has been barricaded and blocked off. This is
wrong. The fact is, the truth of Christianity, the deep spiritual and mystical
revelation of God that opens up the heart of reality to us, the mystery of the
Cross and resurrection, of sacrament and salvation, of prayer and devotion—all
of this makes the world such a very good place, such a place of light and sunshine
and beauty and delight, that the natural and normal attitude of the Christian
both can and should be rollicking good humor, a readiness to dance and sing and
laugh, conviviality and plain simple joy.

Life is good. The world is blowing up, yes.
We have deep problems in our lives, yes. Suffering and death are real, yes.

But please, please, please, may we never lose
sight of, never for a moment forget that life is good, that the whole universe
is permeated with the love and mercy of God, that in Christ all creation is
renewed, reborn, remade continually, that the victory of light and love is
secured, and that the Great Inn which is also and utterly the Great Church
awaits us on the other side of the veil. So we can laugh, dance, raise a pint
or two, and have a grand good time today, in the midst of the battle and sweat
of life, as we say our prayers and put all our hope and trust in God to see us
through.

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What This Blog is About

This blog was first called 'Life With a German Shepherd,'and was exclusively dedicated to promoting the writings of Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI. Upon his resignation on February 28, 2013, the name and focus changed, and it was called Ten Thousand Places, broadening out the search for God's face and God's truth to a multitude of writers and artists who have reflected this in various ways.

In January 2015, feeling a need for a new departure in blogging, I re-named the blog 'Getting to the Point', now placing the emphasis on basic catechesis, evangelization, and a constant search for the essential matter of God, man, Church, world, and life. I hope you enjoy it.